UPDATE - Turkish president visits blast victims in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has visited the hospitalized victims of the car bomb attack, which killed 11 people, including seven police officers, in Istanbul’s Beyazit area on Tuesday.

The terror attack against a police vehicle in Beyazit's Vezneciler town on the city's European side was carried out at 8.40 a.m. local time [0540GMT], Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said.

The Turkish president visited one of the hospitals in which several of the 36 people wounded in the blast were admitted.

"The mission of our soldiers, our police and our city guards is to protect our lives and our property. It is unacceptable that these people are targeted. We will continue our fight against terrorism fearlessly," Erdogan told reporters following the visit.

The Turkish Presidency released a statement concerning the terror attack, saying that the perpetrators of the attack “will pay the price for the blood they shed”.

"Turkey will never bend to the evil of terrorism that has benefited only from blood and pain,” the statement added.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, also told reporters in Ankara: "By planning to kill innocent citizens in the first days of Ramadan, the terrorist organizations have once again, shown that they are the enemy of human values and the same humanity. Turkey will never abandon its fight against terrorism."